


Dream Mingle

by Howl20f3



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Dream Eater Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Toy Box (Kingdom Hearts), the caribbean (kingdom hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27590618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Howl20f3/pseuds/Howl20f3
Summary: Between quests, adventures, and Princesses there's not a whole lot of time to catch up. There's always time for sleep though.
Relationships: Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

It wasn’t fair, no matter how many times they did the race, Riku almost always beat him. 14 to 2 and the gap just kept getting larger. His mother often told him that Sora’s stubbornness was also a strength, but it didn’t seem to be paying off in this situation at all. It was almost as depressing as sparring yesterday had been. Riku was just too big, legs too long. If Sora was just a little older and had gone through his growth spurt he could definitely beat Riku to the star tree.

Puffing slightly from exertion, Sora steps back up to the line, nodding to Kairi that they would in fact be going again. Riku smirks at him, it was like he didn’t even know how to smile, and crouches slightly, barely even flushed from all the running they had been doing. “Maybe Highwind is too nice of a name, maybe something more like 15 to 2 would be a better name. Just a reminder of all the hard work that went into her,” Riku teases.

Sora groans, rolling his eyes at his best friend. “Yeah right, I can do this all day, eventually you’ll just give up and then I’ll be declared the winner!” Whatever Riku was going to say back gets cut off by Kairi waving her hand and shouting go! Sora takes off, jumping across the dilapidated bridge, only barely managing to avoid the particularly rotted section that would just dissolve underneath your foot. It was while he was running for the ladder, that Sora noticed things didn’t look quite right. He had left Destiny Islands some time ago, and while he had been back, things had changed. The play island especially, since more kids had gotten to the age where their parents would let them row out,. Each had left his or her mark on the island, new structures, more flowers, old buildings just falling down from age. Even the Coconut Grove had way more trees, making it hard to run through it like they were trying to do now. 

Even as he realizes it, his wrist guards change to reflect his current clothing, and the island shifts. Each time he glances around something is different, and when he reaches the top of the zipline he finds that the cord is broken, hanging limply from where it is tied. Looking down he can see a much older Riku sprinting along the beach, straight toward a dark portal where the star tree should be. Without hesitating, Sora airsteps across the tops of the trees, shouting Riku’s name and tackling him before he can go through the portal. He was in his new jacket, with the dark blues and plaid, but on the back is the dream eater’s sigil. Everything starts to get a little fuzzier now that Sora has realized he was definitely in a dream, so he turns Riku around and grabs his face, staring intently into his eyes. “Are you here?” he asks.

Riku snorts and pushes his hands away, “Does this look like a nightmare Sora?” he asks, but he doesn’t deny it, just flopping onto the sand and looking up at the sky. 

“It was about to be, I was probably going to lose to you again,” Sora groans, dropping down and laying on the sand next to his friend, staring up at the stunningly clear skies of the islands. 

“With your track record I am definitely more in danger of losing you these days,” Riku points out dryly, “Now come on, you don’t want Donald to wake you up again,” he says, tapping the sand beneath them, making a huge sinkhole open up. At the sensation of falling, Sora sits up, hitting his head on the roof of the gummy ship. He groans, rubbing his head irritably, muttering about his jerk of a best friend before peeling himself the rest of the way out of the bunk. As rude as he was, Riku was right, being woken up by Donald’s unique gargling voice was not the best way to start the day. Still it would have been nice to spend some time with Riku, they barely saw each other these days between missions and emergencies. He barely saw any of his friends, but Riku he seemed to miss the most. Dreaming was sometimes the best part of the day because they could spend time together there while each was still off on their own missions. 

Of course that meant that Riku was showing up to save Sora from nightmares, leaving them little time to actually spend together. Getting an idea, Sora pulls out his gummi phone to text Riku. Even though he was likely also awake now he didn’t really want to discuss their occasional late night dream escapades with the king. “Can you get into any of my dreams or just my nightmares?” He sends before getting up to start his day in the cramped shower on the gummi ship. Another benefit of being up early was showering before Goofy. The anthropomorphic dog was a sweetheart but he did shed.

Thankfully his magic clothes never need to be washed, somehow always fresh despite questing in them. Once dressed he checks the gummi phone and can feel a thrill of delight in his chest when he sees that Riku has responded. “Honestly I’m not sure, I only feel the pull of the dream eater connection when you are having a nightmare. I suppose I have never actively tried to find you outside of that, it felt a little invasive,” he explains and Sora smiles

“You should try it tonight, it would be fun to see you and hang out a bit. We never have time for that anymore,” He doesn’t get to see if Riku responds as his day starts pretty quickly after that, heading down to an icy planet and not having much opportunity to check his phone. Of course it takes until nighttime when they finally stop to rest, having set up a warp point on the mountain that they can return to in the morning. Finally back on the Gummi Ship and warm from an impromptu shower that he had deemed necessary when he couldn’t stop shivering, Sora climbs into his bunk and pulls out his phone. 

Riku’s response was simple, that he would try that night, and it made Sora’s heart beat a bit faster. It had honestly slipped his mind and now he would have a much harder time falling asleep. Grumpy at how he was suddenly not at all tired, he sits up and looks over at Donald. The duck was already snoring, so Sora sighs and lays back on the bed, summoning the Key Blade and attempting to cast Sleep on himself. It was harder than expected, taking a couple of attempts to aim the slightly unwieldy weapon up toward his face. When he finally does though, the world goes blissfully black. 

Sora was flying, expertly spinning through the air around Big Ben in London. Peter was there too, laughing and showing him the ropes as they fly between massive pillars and up next to the hands. It was beautiful, the night sky a deep blue with beautiful bright stars, matched by the dark streets of London and the twinkling of candles and small electric lights. 

Peter gets ahead of him, spinning around the corner of Big Ben, forcing Sora to speed up, but when he comes around the corner he runs straight into Riku, who was just floating in the air, staring up at the massive clock face. Thankfully it doesn’t hurt because clearly this was a dream. Riku holds onto him though to keep him from just dropping straight out of the sky in surprise, or waking up. “Hey, it worked,” he says, sounding happy about it. 

Sora blushes and flails to get out of his surprisingly muscular arms, his stomach fluttering in embarrassment and nerves, “Y-yes and you just had to surprise me didn’t you?” He grumbles, righting himself and floating a few feet away.

Riku looks back at the clock, “This is part of Neverland, isn’t it?” Sora nods his agreement, “I never saw this part...pretty much spent the whole time on Hook’s ship,” he sounds regretful with his usual brand of self hate and depression.

Floating over to knock shoulders with his best friend, Sora smiles, trying to focus on the positive, “Well now you can see everything you missed out on!” He grabs Riku’s hand and pulls him over to the ledge of the clock tower so they can sit. “We don’t have time to sightsee in real life...but here we can,”

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” he agrees, voice still quiet but less depressed. “We never get to hang out anymore,”

Sora sighs heavily and stretches his hands above his head before laying back onto the sloped tiled roof. It really took away any fear of heights once you could fly. “I know! And it’s fair, you and Mickey are a great team, and I’ve got Donald and Goofy, but it seems like every adventure just separates us,” he whines. “We are a great team! Why can’t we have a chance?”

Riku chuckles, relaxing more, but he stays sitting up which gives Sora a good view of the purplish dream eater mark on his back. “Sure we would if you don’t hold me back,” he teases, and while it feels familiar, Sora can’t help the sting of disappointment from how true it felt. Especially on their last mission. 

Absently he reaches out to touch the mark and Riku stiffens in surprise but doesn’t pull away. “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you...if you hadn’t been there I would have ended up as one of Xehonort’s copies,” he murmurs, unusually subdued, but it really was the first time they had had to talk since then.

“You’re strong Sora, stronger than any of us. It’s not fair all the stuff you’ve been put through,” he lays down, turning his head so they can look at each other.

It’s embarrassing but even just hearing Riku say that made him feel worlds better, his face crumpling in relief. “Thanks, thank you,” he says, forcing a deep shaky breath. He didn’t really want to cry in front of Riku right now, he just wanted to have fun, so he sits up suddenly before Riku can say anything else. Of course that’s when he realizes that the scene had changed, now they were sitting on the dark beach.

“Where do you want to go? Oh! I can show you the Toy Box!” He says, his mask of happiness back up as he grabs Riku and bodily hauls him to his feet, “Race you there!” He challenges before taking off.

Riku laughs and follows, “I don’t even know where we’re going!” He yells, those unfairly long legs making it easy for him to catch up as the beach gives way to huge manicured lawns and houses. Sora turns into a toy while Riku stays the same only tiny. Riku grabs Sora and pulls him to a stop, looking him up and down in surprise, “What happened to you?”

“I’m a toy,” he says, happily jumping back and spinning on one leg to show off his strange joints that can rotate 360 degrees. “It’s fun! You should see Donald and Goofy here! They’re adorable! Oh and there’s this game where the main character looks just like you, but he has two colored eyes and is even more dark and brooding,”

Riku huffs, a smile tugging at his lips as he folds his arms in feigned irritation, “I’m not...that bad.” 

“You’ve gotten better,” Sora admits, this time taking his hand, though it still makes his heart flutter a bit. He pulls him up one of the driveways, and up onto the roof of the garage. 

“Thanks to you,” Riku says, hip checking him as they walk along the peak of the roof toward the window. 

Sora blushes again at the contact even though years before it wouldn’t have bothered him. Honestly it didn’t really bother him now, it just made him feel funny and giddy inside. “Hey Riku...we should do this more often, I really miss you,” he admits, trying to play it cool as he puts his hands behind his head and grinning at the other boy.

“We should, I’ve missed you too you dork,” he teases, poking at his shoulder and causing him to stumble on the uneven roof.

Sora grunts as he catches himself before grinning and jumping at Riku, tackling him off the roof, but as they fall Sora suddenly goes very cold. He gasps and his eyes fly open as he scrambles off of his bunk that was suddenly covered in ice. “Aw come on Donald,” he whines, “I was having a good dream,”


	2. Dream Soirée

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another night of dreaming, fun, and almost confessing to your best friend.

It had taken a while for Riku to realize that his dream eater abilities had continued past the mark of mastery test, that he and Sora were inexorably linked together. When he did, the variety and caliber of Sora’s nightmares were...intense. His own sleep had been disturbed as he felt the call to rush to Sora’s side, but hadn’t yet learned what it meant. One night, from simple frustration and lack of sleep, he managed to follow the link. He dove into a twisted nightmare, Sora lost in the Wonderland Forest, being harried and tormented by twisted shadows with each of Xehanort’s faces, telling him he was a failure, that his friends would leave him. That he was powerless and weak and everyone thought so, they were just too nice to say it. Blasting immediately into action, Riku had used his powers to dispel the nightmares. Fighting them off had been hard at the beginning, Sora’s own terror and despair fueling them. The nightmare had eventually fallen away though, once he had fought off all of the creatures, letting Sora and by extension, Riku, sleep. For weeks it had been that way, Riku appearing whenever he felt the now familiar tug of a nightmare. Now though they had found a better way to spend their time.

Entering Sora’s dream this time was different for some reason. It felt like the air was slightly electric as he dives. When he looks around he’s on the play island and Sora is practicing with his keyblade, swinging at the air as he pulls off different moves on some dream shadows, probably just killing time. Usually he was pretty deeply embedded in the dream when Riku arrived, unable to dream lucidly until he was aware of what was happening. This time he seemed to be in control, and even looks up expectantly when he feels Riku enter. He smiles his broad happy smile that makes Riku’s stomach feel fluttery. “What is up with you today?” Riku asks, coming off sounding more suspicious then he meant to.

Sora cackles happily, he was definitely planning something. “Nothing nothing, I’m just in a great mood!” he explains, as if that cleared it all up. He rushes over to grab Riku’s hand, pulling on him, “I have something I want to show you!” Still running, he pulls his friend across the beach and bodily up onto the wooden platform on the left hand side of the island. He spreads his arms wide, showing off a huge, beautiful pirate ship that had been hidden behind the trees. Beautify, with reddish wood, pale accents, and dark sails. 

Riku openly gapes at the ship, it was exactly what he had always wanted to escape on with Sora when they were kids. “Where...how...what?” he asks, finally coming back to himself and shaking his head in wonder.

Laughing, Sora quick steps over to the bowsprit, spinning around it a few times to show off. “She’s mine! The Leviathan, given to me by the sea!” he shouts, clearly completely overcome by excitement. When he straightens from his spinning he’s suddenly a little grubbier and dressed head to toe in pirate garb, including a tricorn hat. He straightens and salutes Riku, “Coming aboard Mister Riku? You must have sturdy sea legs to be aboard this ship!” he says with a silly English accent. 

Not about to miss this opportunity, Riku flies over to the ship, landing gracefully on the deck. He pauses and looks down at himself, focusing until his clothes change from his regular battle gear to his own pirate wear. Slightly puffy black pants, knee high boots with turned down tops, a fluffy white shirt and a dark blue vest with yellow accents. He shakes his head, changing his hair to be slightly longer and pulled back into a ponytail to show off one gold earring. He smiles in satisfaction before looking back up at Sora for approval. The other boy is openly staring at him and for a moment he worries that he messed it up somehow. “What?” he asks, twisting to make sure he wasn’t missing any important pieces of clothing.

Sora blinks and his attention comes back to the moment, “You look amazing!” he says, his same energy back after the slight lapse. 

His sincerity makes Riku blush slightly which he covers with a cough. “Just like we always dreamed right? On a ship out at sea? Pirates.” He looks out across the water, the play island having now disappeared. He could see smudges on the horizon, promises of new places to explore. 

“Exactly like we always dreamed, and I guess we are still kind of just dreaming it, but one day I promise I’ll take you to the Caribbean. Once we have a break between all the missions,” he steps up next to Riku, taking in the same stretching blue horizon. “I’ve actually been here before, this is the second time we’ve been to the Caribbean, but this is the first time with my own ship,”

“Then what are we waiting for? Show me around Captain Sora,” Riku says, smirking side-eyed at his friend. Grinning his signature grin, Sora salutes him before jogging over to the wheel with a happy whoop. 

They spend the next few hours recreating and experiencing new and different islands, even going so far as to plan out treasure hunts for the other. Anything that Sora or Riku’s brain could cook up was within their grasp, and they put it to good use. Battles and treasure and strange white crabs that Sora didn’t have a good explanation for. It was all incredibly fun though, giving them a much needed break. After a particularly rough battle with some other ships, Riku sits on the stairs, “I never thought I could get exhausted in a dream,” he says, chuckling in amusement at how strange their lives had become. It felt good though, the kind of tired that only comes from a full day of fun and play.

Sora, who had been singing a pirate song to himself looks over at his friend, grinning, “It’s all in your head Riku,” he jokes, then laughs to himself. “I don’t much like being alone in my head anymore, too much stuff going on, I’m glad you’re here” Sora admits off handedly as he looked into what was slowly turning into a beautiful sunset. They had both been forced to grow up way too quickly, so having nights like this was really helping. 

“It’s definitely more fun being in your head. I think you’ve been having less nightmares,” he looks over at Sora, raising his eyebrow curiously, wondering if there was an explanation for that phenomena. 

Tearing his gaze away from the sunset, Sora takes a moment to reposition the ship, pointing it so that they can both see while sitting on the steps. He joins Riku then, the steps only barely wide enough for both of them, but neither was about to complain. “For a while after the test I was scared to fall asleep...the nightmares were really bad, sometimes I would just relive everything that Xehanort put me through at the end. Now though I’m not so scared to fall asleep, because even if I have a nightmare I know you’ll be there to save me,” It was easier to talk this way, sitting next to each other, facing things together. 

“I swear, I’ll always be there to save you...just like you have for me,” Riku says quietly, leaning against Sora more than was strictly necessary with their seating arrangement. He can feel his heart quicken, knowing that this was a perfect time to say what had been on his mind for a while now. He didn’t really expect Sora to reciprocate, after years of fighting over Kairi and being generally stupid teenagers, but he wanted to say it. “Sora I…” he begins, looking over at his friend, but pausing as he can feel the shift indicating that Sora was starting to wake up. It starts as the dream begins to unravel, the edges pulling away as he comes out of rem sleep. “I have something to tell you, tomorrow,” he gets out, blushing and cursing himself for his cowardice.

Sora smiles, making Riku’s heart clench. “Tomorrow,” he promises. Sora woke up then, leaving Riku to watch the remains of the sunset break apart, including the ship, leaving him floating in dream space. It was always so disappointing and jarring when it ended, but they still had lives to get back to, so Riku lets himself drift back to his own body. It wasn’t perfect, but Riku had realized after spending so much time with Sora, that he would give anything to stay in Sora’s life. He loved him, loved him so much he would even happily just stay his friend, though he would always wish for more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one went through a couple of rewrites, I wasn't sure where I wanted it to go, but I think I'm happy with where it ended up. Any advice or thoughts are always welcome! 
> 
> Playing Melody of Memory is filling my head with all sorts of classic songs that I love, fills me with a desire to replay all the games!

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick Dream Eater Riku fic, because I will always wish that these boys could have more time together.


End file.
